(Rochester, N.Y.) – By Saturday morning, the skyway that connects Midtown to the Sibley building over Main Street will be gone.
Workers have already removed the glass enclosure and flooring. All that remains is a steel trestle, which will come down in pieces over the next few nights. The street and sidewalk will be closed during the work.
“You're not going to see a bridge any longer. You're going to walk down Main Street and be like, ‘Well what happened? The bridge is gone,” said Midtown construction manager Marty Piecuch, who is overseeing the $55 million demolition for Empire State development.
The former shopping mall and office complex is now just a shell, with all of the asbestos, dry wall, electrical fixtures and plumbing removed.
“This is really the first major demolition activity,” said Piecuch.
In early October, the Xerox skyway on Broad Street will be torn down. The Chase skyway will happen later. Piecuch said that bridge is much more complicated to dismantle, and the city, state and Chase are still working out who will pay for what part of the demolition and repairs.
“The Chase bridge is not straight, doesn't go straight across Clinton. It's actually on an angle, a bit of a curvature to it. It has a lot more materials to it,” Piecuch said.
The skyways have connected downtown’s major buildings for decades. But PAETEC, which is building its headquarters on the Midtown site, doesn’t want a skyway. Urban planners say downtowns thrive when pedestrians are out on the street.
“It's shocking to see it happening,” said Rochester Downtown Development Corporation’s Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, after we showed her a picture of the stripped down Main Street skyway. “Also it's a signal it's really happening. We really are changing the fortunes of that block.”
Demolition of the first building at Midtown – the old Wegmans - will start on Monday.
The mayor plans to hold a ceremony at the site. A webcam at the Sibley building is expected to be up and running soon so the public can watch the process. The entire demolition is expected to last through December 2011.
“This fall the landscape behind us is really going to start changing. Buildings are going to come down. There are going to be vacant sites, covered up, backfilled with soil. The next few weeks and months are going to be a lot of demolition activity,” said Piecuch.
